Wait, let's keep reading here.
It talks about the fact that they had made God's word of none effect through their tradition.
And it says in verse 14, when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them,
hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand, there is nothing from without a man that entering
into him can defile him.
But the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable, and he saith unto them, are ye so without understanding also?
Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man that cannot
defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth into the draft,
and purging all meats.
And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile the man.
So what Jesus is saying here when he says, nothing that cometh into a man can defile
him.
What he's explaining is that what really defiles us is that which defiles us spiritually, not
physically.
He's saying that it's not eating dirty food that's going to make you unholy.
But it's rather a bad thought life that makes you unholy.
It's rather the things that you do, such as, you know, evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication,
murder, thefts, covetousness.
He said these are the things that defile the man.
Covetousness will defile you.
Blasphemy will defile you.
But he's saying to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man.
So what he's trying to do is get their emphasis off of just physical cleanliness and get onto
spiritual cleanliness, which is that which really defiles.
Now some people have tried to twist this verse and try to say there's nothing entering
into a man that can defile the man.
So therefore it's okay for me to drink alcohol, smoke pot.
I mean, I've heard this argument and people have said, you know, nothing that goes into
a man can defile a man.
You know, there you go.
Case closed.
You know, I can drink, I can smoke pot, I can take drugs, whatever.
But obviously that's not what he's saying.
And let me just prove that false.
The Bible first of all talks about the fact that when you drink alcohol, he says, thine
eyes shall behold strange women and thy mouth shall utter perverse things.
So if you drink alcohol, you're going to do this stuff on this list anyway, because the
Bible says that if you drink alcohol, your eyes will behold strange women.
And isn't that in this list as, you know, evil thoughts, adulteries, an evil eye, because,
you know, if you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with
her already in your heart.
So to try to use this verse to justify, or I've heard other people use it just to justify
eating all manner of junk food.
You know, I mean, you know, quoting this scripture in the McDonald's drive-thru, you know, nothing
that cometh into the man can defile the man.
You know, give me a Big Mac, fries, Diet Coke, whatever other garbage.
But honestly, you know, your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and we
should glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's.
And so we should not put poisonous substances or junk into our body.
Just because Jesus says, hey, you know, washing your hands is not the problem.
It's getting your mind clean.
That's what really needs to happen.
But that's different than just saying, well, just take drugs, smoke cigarettes, drink,
eat junk food, because there's nothing that can defile you.
I mean, that's, you know, you're taking it too far there.
You know, that's a little bit of an extreme view of this passage.
And it doesn't jive with the rest of scripture.
You know, we need to make sure that whenever we interpret a scripture, it jives with everything
else in scripture.
And if Jesus is just saying here, look, you know, worrying about cleanliness is not as
important as worrying about keeping your mind clean and that eating with unwashed hands
isn't going to kill you.
It makes perfect sense, but let's not take it to some extreme of just, yeah, it doesn't
matter what I eat.
It doesn't matter what I drink.
But here's the thing, though.
If you eat junk food, it's going to make you sick.
It's going to make you unhealthy.
It's going to make you overweight or whatever.
And so, you know, you need to stay away from that stuff and eat nutritious food.
And the Bible has a lot to say about food and drink, et cetera.